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With California experiencing two years of unprecedented wildfires that have left more than 20,000 homes destroyed and scores dead, the private firefighting business is booming. These brigades work independently from county firefighters; their job is to protect specific homes under contract with insurance companies.
Their work can vary from pushing back flames as they approach properties to reaching the site before the blaze arrives and spraying homes with fire retardant.
But the private forces have generated complaints from some fire departments, who say they don't always coordinate with local crews and amount to one more worry as they try to evacuate residents and battle the blaze.
"From the standpoint of first responders, they are not viewed as assets to be deployed. They're viewed as a responsibility," said Carroll Wills, communications director for California Professional Firefighters, a labor union representing rank-and-file firefighters in the state.
What began more than a decade ago as a white-glove service for homeowners in well-to-do neighborhoods has expanded in recent years as the wildfire danger has increased, said Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, a not-for-profit organization that educates the public about the insurance industry.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-private-firefighters-20181127-story.html
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 30 2018, @02:03AM (3 children)
Well, what I was told by my buddy (who does this for a living) is that this should have all been cleared long ago but the government refuses to fund it due to "muh deficits or whatever". AFAIK, It isn't something you would do once there is a fire nearby. But I guess hes doesn't know anything about it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Friday November 30 2018, @04:25AM (2 children)
We are talking about two different things.
1) Reactive
2) Proactive
You are correct about funds and the proactive efforts, and your buddy is correct that prescribed burn activities wouldn't be performed during a reactionary event.
Under appropriate guidance, I can't see why a private firefighting company cannot be contracted to perform a prescribed burn, as long as everyone is following the regulations and certified. The major problem has been that funds have been allocated for #1, but never enough for #2. There is a difference between state and federal budgets too, as well as what they're doing to prevent fires in the future.
My points are about the sheer silliness of expecting #2 operations during an extreme #1 event. You don't have a lot of time for prescribed burns, at least not near the epicenter. Not in a way that you could've saved everything. With the winds these fires were jumping 10 lane highways. If it can do that, then just how much do you think you need to clear, and in what time frame? Adding private resources doesn't change the fate of these properties, even if private is allocated on a 1:1 basis somehow. Not in this kind of event, with these very extreme conditions.
Under the conditions of #1, as experienced by Northern California, I agree they shouldn't attempt it. Which was my point. That even with those resources, both private and public, it will be about containment, and you have to give up properties to the fire. You can't stand your ground with the conditions we faced. You just can't, and you would understand that if you were there. It was pure hell, and a testament to all the firefighters that they even slowed it down, much less contained it.
Having private companies involved during these kinds of events is nonsensical, unless they are directly tied in to the chain of command. They'll give up the properties too, or they'll just die. The problem I have with that, is that the public firefighters will disengage from their efforts to save the men trying to save the unsavable properties. I would rather see the private firefighters team up with public firefighters and coordinate their efforts at containment. *THAT* could actually make a real difference.
This perceived pissing match doesn't help anyone, and the request the private agencies coordinate with public isn't unreasonable. At all.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 30 2018, @06:46AM (1 child)
Ok, there is a fire. And there is a clear path that fire will take. And there are people who say lets cut this fire off weeks/months/years ahead of when it reach the target at the fastest rate a fire has ever spread. Would you hire them?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday November 30 2018, @09:28PM
Uhhh, no, because they're fucking dipshits according to you.
Not sure what you are saying either. They can cut off the fire off weeks ahead of time? Do they have Miss Cleo on the payroll? Or are you talking about proactive behavior to reduce the availability of fuel, create fire breaks where possible, and take the necessary steps to make sure our forests get the water they need (Kick Nestle out)? First there is a fire, and then somehow there is a clear path it will take? Really? Right there you are full of it. Nobody is predicting in advance how a fire will move, because almost nobody can predict the winds in advance.
Proactive steps make sense, and I already said that private companies that can meet the certifications (they have proper training) should be able to be hired by the state, to be MANAGED by the state in performing prescribed burns in our forests. That is what happens "years" ahead of the possible fire.
During reactive situations, in which your "weeks/months/years" makes zero sense, private companies should be forced by law to be cooperating with the public agencies handling the catastrophe. There are no proactive measures possible during these events, not ones that can happen within hours, or the minutes required. Containment means giving up properties, which goes against the goals of the private companies, but is chosen because those properties have ZERO chance.
You and the others are actually quite cute with your insistence that private efforts could somehow trump public ones, and they could've saved Paradise. Get this through your head; Paradise was doomed the second the fire started.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.